In homes, efficient management of photographed still pictures and videos has been desired along with the popularization of imaging devices, such as digital-still cameras, video cameras, and portable terminal devices with functions for shooting still images and videos. Conventionally, a method for managing photographed still pictures and videos has been known in the art. The method stores the pictures and videos in an information processing apparatus with a large capacity storage device, such as a personal computer, and manages each of the pictures and videos with the shooting date and time, shooting place, a photographed person, and the like.
Furthermore, there is a demand for specifying persons who had taken pictures and videos (hereinafter, collectively referred to as “images”) to be managed. This demand may occur due to the following three main reasons.
The first reason is a request to provide feedback on an appropriate camera technique to a photographer who had taken the image to be managed. For example, if a resulting still picture has poor image qualities due to handshake, improper white balance, taking photographs against the sun, improper composition, or the like, the photographer who had taken the still picture may improve his or her camera techniques by obtaining feedback about the causes of the poor image quality.
A second reason is a request to classify many images according to photographers to manage these images.
A third reason is a request to analyze action history, taste, and the like of the photographers of images.
Various technologies have been known for specifying a photographer of an image on the basis of the image itself. These technologies include, for example, one for embedding the information about the photographer in a photo with audio data simultaneously recorded at the time of taking the photo, one for installing a fingerprint sensor in a camera, and one for installing a sensor for reading the information about the retina of the photographer in the finder of a camera.
Other technologies for specifying a photographer of an image include, for example, one for embedding imaging information, such as an electronic apparatus used for taking an image, the name of a person who had taken the image, a shooting place, and a shooting time as identification information, and one for displaying an icon of the person who taken the image using a thumbnail-size image.